Amit Shah demands Kolkata top cop’s removal for ‘botched’ sting

Kolkata, March 29 (IANS) Accusing city police commissioner Rajeev Kumar of direct involvement in a “failed attempt to carry out a sting” on BJP leader Rahul Sinha, party chief Amit Shah on Tuesday demanded the top cop’s removal.

Shah said the Election Commission should not only remove the city’s top cop but also those involved in the Narada sting operation against several Trinamool leaders.

“Two Special Branch personnel of the Kolkata Police tried to carry out a sting operation. They were caught. A drama was enacted, and they were suspended and detained,” the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief said at the Press Club here.

“Why are you acting against small fry when the police commissioner has a direct role in this? I demand the Election Commission immediately remove all police officers seen in the Narada sting operation as well those involved in this botched sting to ensure free and fair elections,” he said.

Ridiculing West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Shah said the “botched” sting operation was a desperate move by the ruling Trinamool Congress party, some of whose leaders were allegedly caught on camera taking bribes in the sting.

“I have heard about a lot of investigative journalists doing sting operations, but I have never heard of a state government sending policemen to conduct a sting and try to implicate our leader Rahul Sinha,” Shah said.

Sinha, a BJP national secretary, on Monday alleged that two city police Special Branch officers, with a motive to conduct a sting, offered him a “fat amount” to “cooperate with them” in smuggling cattle to Bangladesh.

The duo was subsequently suspended after Sinha filed a police complaint.

Attacking Banerjee, Shah said: “I also want to tell Mamata-ji that by employing such tactics, you cannot defame the Bharatiya Janata Party. Gold is gold, brass is brass. Since you (Trinamool) yourselves have been caught, you tried to frame us, but in the end you stood exposed again.”

He also accused the Trinamool government of pursuing the politics of appeasement and encouraging infiltration from Bangladesh at the cost of law and order in West Bengal.

“Whichever state the BJP is in power, we neither appease anyone nor are afraid of anyone. There is rule of law and the situation is unlike what it is here (in the state),” Shah said.

Pakistan seriously investigating terror for first time: Amit Shah

Kolkata, March 29 (IANS) Amid protests over allowing a Pakistani probe panel to visit the Pathankot air base in Punjab, BJP chief Amit Shah on Tuesday credited the neighbouring country for “making serious effortsa in investigating a terror case.

“The Pakistan team which has arrived here, they have only a limited space for their probe. They will neither go to the IAF base nor will they discuss with the army officers. They will only probe other things.

“But I believe that for the first time, Pakistan is making serious efforts in investigating a terror case. What will be the result will be known only after they the probe is completed,” Shah told media persons here.

Shah’s comments came on a day when the five-member Pakistan’s Joint Investigation Team visited various locations, including a part of the IAF base, to retrace the movement of suspected Pakistani terrorists who attacked it.

Both the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have opposed the Pakistan team visit and activists from both the parties staged demonstration near the front gate of the Pathankot base.

The Indian Air Force base was attacked on January 2, leading to the death of seven Indian security personnel and all the attackers.

It’s ‘bhay, bhookh and bhrashtachar’ under Mamata: Amit Shah

Kolkata, March 29 (IANS) In a scathing attack on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, BJP president Amit Shah on Tuesday said Trinamool Congress’ slogan of ‘maa maati manusha’ has changed to “bhay, bhookh and bhrashtachar” (fear, hunger, corruption).

“When Mamata came to power, not only the state but the entire country had hoped that Bengal will regain its lost glory. But in her five years, Mamata has taken Bengal only towards degradation,” said Shah during a media interaction here.

Accusing the Trinamool Congress of indulging in the politics of vote bank and appeasement, Shah said Banerjee encouraging Bangladeshi infiltration has led to security concerns for the entire country.

“I have no hesitation to say that in these five years, Mamata has gifted to the people the shadow of the Left Front’s 34 years of misrule. There has been no change in Bengal. Law and order situation has only degraded. Even in the case of chit funds, Mamata has walked the path shown by the communists.

“If the chit funds were born under the Left, they flourished under Mamata. Seventeen lakh families in Bengal have been ruined, who will account for their miseries?” he asked.

Claiming that only the bomb making industry flourished under the Trinamool regime, Shah said in the “land of Rabindra Sangeet, only bomb explosion can now be heard”.

“In the name of change, Mamata has only scripted the tale of destruction. It’s now for the people to ask her what she has given them in these five years.

“This government which came to power with the slogan of ‘maa, maati and manush’ (mother, land and people) has now turned it to ‘bhay bhookh and bhrastachar’ (fear, hunger and corruption),” he said.

Appealing to the people to vote for the Bharatiya Janata Party, Shah said the “people now need to ask her why this grave danger of ‘bhay, bhookh and bhrashtachar’ has engulfed Bengal?”